1940 in British radio

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This is a list of events from British radio in 1940.

Events

January

7 January – The BBC Forces Programme begins broadcasting in the United Kingdom; it becomes the most popular channel among civilians at home as well as its primary target audience.

February

25 February – The Proud Valley is the first known film to have its première on radio when the BBC broadcasts a 60-minute version.[1]
29 February – Welsh Rarebit first broadcast by the BBC from its Cardiff studio.[2]

March

No events.

April

No events.

May

May – The evacuated BBC Radio Variety Department relocates to Bangor in north Wales from where it will broadcast until August 1943.[3]
10 May (9.00pm) – Neville Chamberlain makes the first public announcement of his resignation as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, and his replacement by Winston Churchill, on the BBC Home Service.
14 May – BBC reporter Charles Gardner working in Reims incorporates the live sounds of a German air raid in a broadcast report.[4]

June

2 June – Secretary of State for War Anthony Eden gives a radio address claiming success of the Dunkirk evacuation.[5][6]
5 June – Yorkshire-born novelist and playwright J. B. Priestley broadcasts his first Sunday evening radio Postscript, "An excursion to hell", on the BBC Home Service, marking the role of the pleasure steamers in the Dunkirk evacuation, just completed.
18 June[4]
- General Charles de Gaulle, de facto leader of the Free French Forces in World War II, uses the airwaves of the BBC to make his Appeal of 18 June from London to the French people for resistance to the German occupation of France.
- Prime minister Winston Churchill repeats his "This was their finest hour" speech, made earlier to the House of Commons, on the BBC Home Service.
23 June – Music While You Work debuts on the BBC Forces Programme.[7]
26 Jun – Foreign Secretary, Anthony Eden, broadcasts to the British people. [8]

July

14 July – The BBC Home Service 9.00pm news bulletin includes a vivid account of an air battle over the English Channel recorded live the previous day by reporter Charles Gardner.[9] The bulletin is preceded by a speech by Churchill, "The War of the Unknown Warriorsˮ,[10] and followed by J. B. Priestley's Postscript describing the seaside resort of Margate in wartime.[11]
19 July – Adolf Hitler makes a peace appeal to Britain in an address to the Reichstag. BBC German-language broadcaster Sefton Delmer unofficially rejects it at once[12] and Lord Halifax, British foreign minister, flatly rejects peace terms in a broadcast reply on 22 July.

August

August – This year's National Eisteddfod of Wales becomes a purely radio event, with broadcasts on the BBC Home Service.[13]
10 August – This and the following year's abbreviated seasons of The Proms are without sponsorship by the BBC.[14]

September

No events.

October

15 October – Seven staff are killed when an attempt to eject a delayed-action German bomb from Broadcasting House in London fails.[15]

November

No events.

December

No events.

Station debuts

7 January: BBC Forces Programme (1940–1944)

Debuts

29 February – Welsh Rarebit (1940–1944, 1948–1952)
23 June – Music While You Work (1940–1967)
Sunday Half Hour (1940–2018)

Continuing radio programmes

1930s

In Town Tonight (1933–1960)

Births

1 April – Annie Nightingale, radio music presenter
10 April – Gloria Hunniford, Northern Irish broadcast presenter
21 May – Ronan O'Rahilly, Irish-born media entrepreneur (died 2020)
11 July – Tommy Vance, radio broadcaster (died 2005)
17 July – Tim Brooke-Taylor, broadcast comedy performer (died 2020)
13 November – Wally K. Daly, radio scriptwriter (died 2020)
Dickie Arbiter, royal broadcast presenter

Deaths

9 April – Mrs. Patrick Campbell, actress, 72[16]
30 October – Hilda Matheson, pioneering radio talks producer, 52 (Graves' disease)[17]

References

Bourne, Stephen (2001). Black in the British Frame: The Black Experience in British Film and Television Second Edition. A&C Black. p. 28. ISBN 978-0-8264-5539-0.
Davies, John (1994). Broadcasting and the BBC in Wales. University of Wales Press. p. 132. ISBN 978-0-7083-1273-5.
British Broadcasting Corporation (1944). BBC Handbook. p. 50.
Stourton, Edward (2017). Auntie's War: the BBC during the Second World War. London: Doubleday. ISBN 978-0-857-52332-7.
"The Battle of the Ports". ibiblio. Retrieved 2015-12-11.
Cerutti, Joseph (1940-06-03). "Four-Fifths of British Saved, Eden Asserts". Chicago Daily Tribune. p. 1.
"Music While You Work". whirligig-tv. Retrieved 2011-01-11.
Library of Congress (1982). Radio Broadcasts in the Library of Congress, 1924-1941: A Catalog of Recordings. Library of Congress. p. 44. ISBN 978-0-8444-0385-4.
"News Report - Air Battle off Dover". BBC. Retrieved 2020-04-18.
Cohen, Ronald I. (2016-11-18). "Churchill Recordings: Speeches and Memoirs". Hillsdale College: The Churchill Project. Retrieved 2020-04-18.
Cullingford, Alison (2010-07-14). "Postscript 14 July 1940". Special Collections – University of Bradford. Retrieved 2020-11-02.
Delmer, Sefton. Black Boomerang.
"Literature Wales: Encyclopedia - Broadcasting". Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2013-01-05.
"History Of The Proms". Proms. BBC. Retrieved 2020-11-02.
"War presents new challenges". About BBC News. BBC. Retrieved 2019-12-02.
"Mrs. Campbell, 75, Famous Actress". The New York Times. 11 April 1940. Retrieved 29 June 2008.
Hunter, Fred (May 2012). "Matheson, Hilda (1888–1940)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 2016-06-27. (subscription or UK public library membership required)

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[1] Bourne, Stephen (2001). Black in the British Frame: The Black Experience in British Film and Television Second Edition. A&C Black. p. 28. ISBN 978-0-8264-5539-0.

[2] Davies, John (1994). Broadcasting and the BBC in Wales. University of Wales Press. p. 132. ISBN 978-0-7083-1273-5.

[3] British Broadcasting Corporation (1944). BBC Handbook. p. 50.

[Stourton-4] Stourton, Edward (2017). Auntie's War: the BBC during the Second World War. London: Doubleday. ISBN 978-0-857-52332-7.

[5] "The Battle of the Ports". ibiblio. Retrieved 2015-12-11.

[6] Cerutti, Joseph (1940-06-03). "Four-Fifths of British Saved, Eden Asserts". Chicago Daily Tribune. p. 1.

[7] "Music While You Work". whirligig-tv. Retrieved 2011-01-11.

[Congress1982-8] Library of Congress (1982). Radio Broadcasts in the Library of Congress, 1924-1941: A Catalog of Recordings. Library of Congress. p. 44. ISBN 978-0-8444-0385-4.

[9] "News Report - Air Battle off Dover". BBC. Retrieved 2020-04-18.

[10] Cohen, Ronald I. (2016-11-18). "Churchill Recordings: Speeches and Memoirs". Hillsdale College: The Churchill Project. Retrieved 2020-04-18.

[11] Cullingford, Alison (2010-07-14). "Postscript 14 July 1940". Special Collections – University of Bradford. Retrieved 2020-11-02.

[12] Delmer, Sefton. Black Boomerang.

[13] "Literature Wales: Encyclopedia - Broadcasting". Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2013-01-05.

[14] "History Of The Proms". Proms. BBC. Retrieved 2020-11-02.

[15] "War presents new challenges". About BBC News. BBC. Retrieved 2019-12-02.

[16] "Mrs. Campbell, 75, Famous Actress". The New York Times. 11 April 1940. Retrieved 29 June 2008.

[17] Hunter, Fred (May 2012). "Matheson, Hilda (1888–1940)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 2016-06-27. (subscription or UK public library membership required)